Virginia Tech Reaction

This is horrible.

A Georgian was one of the first murdered.

Victims of Shooting Are Remembered

BLACKSBURG, Va., April 17 — Ryan Clark was known as Stack here on the rolling campus of Virginia Tech, an amiable senior memorable for his ready smile and thoughtful ways.

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In the end, as the people here struggled to come to grip with the tragedy, it fell to Vernon W. Collins, the coroner in Mr. Clark’s hometown in Columbia County, Ga., to deliver the news of his death to his mother.

"She was in shock," Mr. Collins said. "It started out in disbelief. She was praying what I was telling her was wrong, and I felt the same way. I wished I didn’t have to tell her that."

"It was horrible, you know, to walk up to somebody you don’t know and tell them they’ve lost a loved one," he added. "It’s the hardest part of my job."

Tall and thin, Mr. Clark, a resident of Augusta, Ga., was well-liked and a member of the university’s marching band, the Marching Virginians, students in the dorm said.

The band’s Web site has an image of him participating in a food drive and says that he enjoyed, among other things, "making t-shirts with his partner in crime, Kim Daniloski, and haggling with street vendors."

He also studied biology and English and had hoped to pursue a doctorate in psychology, with a focus on cognitive neuroscience.

I'm thinking of all the victims and their families and friends and wish for the survivors the strength they need to get through this.